Dulzin Names Committee to Deal with WZO Information Department

Leon Dulzin, acting chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives, named a three-man committee today to deal with a controversy that has purportedly paralyzed the work of the WZO’s organization and information department. At the same time, Dulzin retracted a charge he made last week that the Zionist Federation of Argentina was distributing PLO propaganda.

Dulzin, who had just returned from a visit to Argentina, claimed he saw a PLO article on a Zionist Federation letterhead. He also charged that alleged leftist tendencies among Jewish youth in Argentina were infecting shlichim (emissaries) from Israel and accused the WZO’s information department of the “Mapamization” of Zionist propaganda efforts abroad.

Dulzin said today that he has since learned that the PLO article was a reprint from a Foreign Ministry publication intended to expose PLO plans for the liquidation of Israel and that he had not seen, at the time, a covering page explaining that purpose. He expressed regrets for making the charge without being aware of the full facts, but said it was an innocent mistake.

The troubles in the information department, headed by Avraham Shenker, of Mapam, stemmed from the appointment of Moshe Gilboa, a former Rafi member, as co-director of the department in charge of information. Gilboa was given the newly created post apparently to put a “brake” on alleged leftist tendencies in written information distributed by the department’s shlichim abroad. The three-man committee consists of Ezra Shapiro, Moshe Krona and Dr. Raanan Weitz.